My zero hour contract job I think want to fire me before I leave for maternity

[elishajade21]

So I work for a company as a supervisor/ manager for a in store concession and myself and the part timer are on zero hour contracts. I made it aware to them I was pregnant from when I was 5 weeks as I had complications. The company is based in Swansea which is quite far from myself in Devon, and they have not carried out a risk assessment, visited myself at the store etc, and recently had an issue with payslips not being received.

I have been with the company since late July 2017 and have spoken to a union and citizen advice on where I stand on my issues with them, they have said I don't really stand much ground because it has been less than a year with them which is worrying as I have witnessed other girls for the company being fired for meaningless things.

An incident has recently come up, that I have been accused of something which is completely out of the question, and my company does not wish to 'investigate' but has decided to pass it to HR to decide 'what they will do with me'

I am scared that they will fire me/ dismiss me to whatever degree they are able to because it would cost them less to do so. I am 16 weeks from my due date so not even within the right frame to claim by SMP

What am I to do? Is it best to leave the company before I am fired or to wait for the pending outcome as they have no issue rehiring new staff to replace the old as I have witnessed...

The issues that have been ongoing for the last 9 months have never been dealt with professionally and there is nobody within the store that can be trusted to support myself in this issue, I'm very upset and it has caused me severe anxiety and minor depression towards my pregnancy. I'm scared of not having enough money behind me to support us both.
Has anyone struggled with similar issues? Leaving earlier for maternity than expected?
And how did you deal with it?

SMP is based on pay between week 17-25 Of pregnancy so if you hold on a bit longer you will qualify

What happens if in the next week or 2 they decided to 'dismiss me'? The company is horrendous and i wouldn't put it past them to be that awful without any real explanation

Zero hour contracts don't need to dismiss you to "fire" you sadly they can simply say they have no hours for you indefinitely (its one of the ways zero hour contracts side step nearly every employment law we have and you will have no evidence of discrimination because that's the nature of the contract.

As my friend who is a employment lawyer zero hour contracts are horribly exploitative to the employees as ALL the power is with the employer if they don't want to pay maternity leave they simply say they have no hours in qualifying weeks (this is common in companies like sports direct). No need to pay holiday or sickness pay (its treated like you declined hours so no need to pay you). It also makes it near impossible to prove discrimination as there can be legitimate reasons for no hours (but most of Europe has heavily regulated these types of contract but the UK has so far lagged behind.

Zero hour contract, gig work and things like Uber all need to be looked at and regulated as its like the wild west right now as they ALL side step the vast majority of employment laws (even minimum wage, discrimination, time between shifts and the weekly hours worked) Its in such as state that a large majority of the none professional jobs might as well be no employment laws.

Is it worth me just leaving before something like that happens and is on my record? I've been on GOV website but I'm just unsure what I should really do, I understand I'm in the thick of it and unfortunate that with a zero hour contract job, but with pay slips I'm able to claim SMP by going to my local job centre but if they decide to dismiss/ provide no hours ( which is impossible as I am the only staff member employed to work during the week) before I reach 25 weeks what options do I have? Or is that it, I'm screwed?